Caracu
# Caracu

The Caracu is a Brazilian breed of beef cattle. It is a Criollo breed, derived from European cattle brought to Brazil by the conquistadors; it has little or no zebuine influence. It was originally a triple-purpose breed, used for draught work and transport, for meat and for milk; in the twenty-first century it is reared principally for beef, but there are also dairy lines. It has contributed to the development of a number of other breeds, among them the Caldeano. It is closely similar to the Mocho Nacional, a polled breed, and it is probable that the two will be merged.

## History

The Caracu derives from cattle brought from Portugal to Brazil by the conquistadors from 1532 $onwards.^{:149}$ It is not known of what type these were, but they may have been similar to the modern Alentejana, Arouquesa, Barrosã, Minhota or Mirandesa $breeds.^{:170}$

The Caracu originated in the southern part of Minas Gerais, and later spread into the state of São $Paulo.^{:149}$ An early description is that of Nicolas Athanassof in $1911.^{:170}$ A breed association, the Associação Brasileira de Criadores de Caracu, was formed in 1916.

In 1913 an influential book by Eduardo Cotrim on cattle-rearing in Brazil, with many colour illustrations, was published in Brussels. It was highly critical of both Brazilian methods and Brazilian cattle, and may have initiated a decline in numbers of the Caracu, which fell steeply during much of the twentieth century as a result of cross-breeding with zebuine or other taurine breeds, coming close to the point of $extinction.^{:149}$

In 1976 the Istituto de Zootecnia of Sertãozinho, in the state of São Paulo, added the Caracu to its research programme; in 1980 the breed association, which had been dormant since 1960, became active again. Numbers increased rapidly: from 12,000 in 1979, the population rose to about 31,000 head in 1994, and to over 85,000 in $2010.^{:149}$ In 2020 the total number reported was just over 162,000.

